Hoping to keep Faith Hill at a distance

In addition to being a talented singer and lovely woman, I’m sure Nashville’s Faith Hill is a wonderful person.

But right now, I just wish she’d get off my back.

In case you missed it, Hill last year finished ahead of a number of Tennessean sportswriters in our season-long NFL picks contest, something the newspaper’s marketing department decided to promote heavily this season.

Properly motivated, the sportswriters took their game to a new level, as Joe Biddle, David Climer, Jim Wyatt and I all finished ahead of Hill. In my case, I posted a 152-99 picking record during the regular season, three games better than Hill at 149-102.

But now the playoffs have arrived and I am sweating. I went 1-3 during the first week of the postseason and Hill went 2-2, meaning that – if you combine the regular season and playoffs – I’m now a mere two games up with seven postseason contests remaining. In other words, she’s on my back.

This weekend, I’ve got Pittsburgh, New England, Atlanta and Chicago winning. Faith is going with Pittsburgh, New England, Green Bay and Seattle.

So it’s entirely possible that by Sunday night, she may have caught me, with plenty of momentum heading into the conference championship weekend. Could all that extra effort put into the regular season go for naught?